Automatic traffic incident detection and reporting system

1. An automatic traffic incident detection and reporting system for a vehicle, comprising: at least one of a plurality of cameras and a plurality of proximity sensors; an incident determination unit configured to receive signals from the at least one of the plurality of cameras and the plurality of proximity sensors, detect whether an incident involving at least one remote vehicle has occurred, and categorize the incident; a remote vehicle position determination unit configured to receive signals from the at least one of the plurality of cameras and the plurality of proximity sensors and determine a location of the incident; and a communication unit configured to transmit data related to the incident to at least one of a cloud server and an emergency service provider, wherein the incident determination unit is configured to either compare images from the plurality of cameras with known images of an acceptable roadway to determine whether there are potholes or debris on a roadway, or utilize machine learning methods and models to automatically identify a road surface and any debris or damage to the road surface.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the incident determination unit is configured to analyze images from the plurality of cameras to determine whether the incident is a traffic accident.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the incident is one of a vehicle accident, an immobilized vehicle, a broken-down vehicle, a major pothole, and debris on a road.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a vehicle position determination unit configured to determine a current position of the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a driver alert system configured to alert a driver when an incident is detected by the incident determination unit.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a data transmission system configured to transmit data to the cloud server, wherein the communication unit is configured to transmit the location of the incident and incident category to the data transmission system, and the data transmission system is configured to communicate the location of the incident and incident category to the cloud server.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data includes at least one of image data, video data, global positioning data, and weather data.

8. A method for automatically detecting and reporting traffic incidents, comprising: receiving, by an incident determination unit and a remote vehicle position determination unit, a plurality of signals from at least one of a plurality of cameras and a plurality of proximity sensors disposed on a vehicle; detecting, by the incident determination unit, whether an incident involving at least one remote vehicle has occurred; either comparing, by the incident determination unit, images from the plurality of cameras with known images of an acceptable roadway, or employing, by the incident determination unit, scene analysis algorithms; determining, by the incident determination unit, whether there are potholes or debris on a current roadway; categorizing, by the incident determination unit, a type of the incident from data gathered by the at least one of the plurality of cameras and the plurality of proximity sensors; determining, by the remote vehicle position determination unit, an incident location from the data gathered by the at least one of the plurality of cameras and the plurality of proximity sensors; and transmitting, by a communication unit, data related to the incident to at least one of a cloud server and an emergency service provider.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: analyzing, by the incident determination unit, images from the plurality of cameras; and determining, by the incident determination unit, whether there has been a traffic accident from the images.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the incident is one of a vehicle accident, an immobilized vehicle, a broken-down vehicle, a major pothole, and debris on a road.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining, by a vehicle position determination unit, a current position of the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising alerting, by a driver alert system, a driver when an incident is detected by the incident determination unit.

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising transmitting, by the communication unit, the incident location and type of incident to a data transmission system on the vehicle, and communicating, by the data transmission system, the incident location and type of incident to the cloud server.

14. A method of detecting and handling incident reports at a cloud server, the method comprising: monitoring, by a cloud server, a communications network for at least one incident report including data for a traffic incident; verifying, by the cloud server, a validity of the at least one incident report; notifying, by the cloud server, an emergency services provider upon receiving and verifying the at least one incident report; reconstructing, by the cloud server, a scene of the traffic incident from the at least one incident report; sorting, by the cloud server, the data from the at least one incident report into chronological order to reconstruct the scene of the traffic incident, wherein the data is sorted according to timestamp information; packaging the scene and the at least one incident report into a data package; and sending, by the cloud server, the data package to a service provider for analysis.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising: evaluating the data, by the cloud server, to determine whether gaps exist in the data; and requesting, by the cloud server, additional data from vehicles local to the traffic incident if gaps exist in the data.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising comparing and corroborating, by the cloud server, a plurality of incident reports from multiple sources to verify the at least one incident report.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the at least one incident report includes data from a traffic accident, a broken-down vehicle, an immobilized vehicle, a pothole, or debris in a road.